AMC is thriving while MoviePass is faltering

Forward-looking: AMC don't plan to issue enrollment statistics on a weekly basis but it couldn't help but boast about signing up more than 400,000 members in just over three months. At this rate, the theater chain will likely reach its 500,000 and one million marks far ahead of schedule.

AMC Theatres launched its movie subscription service on June 26. The theater chain expected it would take about a year for its MoviePass competitor to reach the 500,000 subscriber mark and two years to hit a million members.

After just 14 weeks, AMC Stubs A-List already has more than 400,000 enrolled members. The subscription service, if you recall, grants admission to up to three movies a week for $19.95 (plus tax) per month. All show times, locations and formats are open to subscribers.

MoviePass, the service that pioneered the movie subscription trend in the summer of 2017, initially got off to a great start. Critics said its business model wasn’t sustainable and sure enough, we’ve seen it crumble in recent months.

Many assumed MoviePass wouldn’t survive the quarter yet surprisingly enough, parent company Helios & Matheson Analytics managed to raise $65 million in new funding last month. Investors aren’t convinced, however, as the company’s shares are currently trading at around $0.02.

What’s really ironic is that AMC was arguably the biggest critic of MoviePass and now, its own subscription service is exceeding expectations.